Part 35

Horns of males curved like those of G. isabella, but decidedly shorter, not or little longer than the skull.

Female. Similar to the male, but the horns slender, scarcely ringed, nearly as long as those of the other sex.

Hab. Oman, Eastern Arabia.

On the 15th of August, 1873, the Zoological Society of London received as a present from Major C. B. Euan Smith (now Col. Sir Charles B. Euan Smith, K.C.B.) a male Gazelle which he had brought with him from Muscat. On September 20th of the same year a female, obviously of the same species and obtained at the same place, was received by the Society on deposit from Mrs. Harris, then of Limefield, Kirkby Lonsdale. Sir Victor Brooke having then lately published his well-known monograph of the Gazelles in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ and being specially interested in the group, Sclater lost no time in calling Sir Victor’s attention to these animals, with which he was much delighted. Sir Victor described them as belonging to a new species at the meeting of the Zoological Society on Feb. 27, 1874, under the name Gazella muscatensis, and pointed out the clear differences which separated them from G. arabica, which up to that time he had believed to be the only Gazelle met with in any part of Arabia.

Fig. 70. Fig. 70 a.

Heads of Muscat Gazelle, ♂ & ♀.

(From specimens in B. M.)]

Instead of the massive, nearly straight, non-lyrate horns of G. arabica, Sir Victor showed that the new species had rather slender horns, compressed from side to side and distinctly lyrate, with their points turned boldly forwards and inwards. In general appearance also the Muscat Gazelles differed from G. arabica in their long and soft coats of a silvery-grey colour, instead of the short close-set pelage of a rich grizzled bay. From G. dorcas, to which they bore more resemblance, the Muscat species was recognizable by its smaller size, its different colour, and by the intensity of the facial and lateral markings.

Sir Victor’s paper on this new Gazelle was illustrated in the ‘Proceedings’ by a good coloured plate drawn by Keulemans, in which, however, the general colour is made rather too dark.

In 1874 a second male specimen of this well-marked species was presented to the Zoological Society’s Menagerie by Mr. J. H. Bainbridge, and in October 1881 a pair of the same Gazelle were presented by the late Lord Lilford. These last bred a young one, which was born in the Society’s Gardens on the 6th of March, 1882.

No more examples of the Muscat Gazelle reached the Regent’s Park after this date until 1894, when a female of this species was obtained “in exchange,” and a pair were received “on deposit” from the Hon. Walter Rothschild, F.Z.S. The male of this pair is still living in the Society’s Menagerie.

The only other specimens of the Muscat Gazelle ever received in Europe, so far as we know, are five examples in the British Museum, presented to that Institution by Dr. A. S. G. Jayakar, of whose many and valuable contributions to science we have already spoken. Among the several consignments of the Mammals of Oman sent home by Dr. Jayakar, of which Thomas has given an account in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1894, were five examples of this Gazelle collected in 1892 and 1893 in several localities in Oman--Khode and Barkah-al-moze, and in Sharkeeyeh, the eastern part of that country. These specimens agree very closely with the type of the species as described by Sir Victor Brooke, which is also in the National Collection.

Our figures of both sexes of this Gazelle (Plate LXV.) have been prepared by Mr. Smit from the specimens in the British Museum.

May, 1898.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXVI.

Wolf del. J. Smit lith. Hanhart imp.

Heuglin’s Gazelle.

GAZELLA TILONURA.

Published by R.H.Porter.]

96. HEUGLIN’S GAZELLE.

GAZELLA TILONURA (HEUGL.).

Antilope melanura, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 6 (1863) (nec Bechstein, 1799).

Gazella melanura, =Fitz=, SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 159 (1869).

Antilope tilonura, =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 315 (1869); =id.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 101 (1877).

Gazella tilonura, =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 126 (1892), (2) p. 170 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 233 (1893).

Gazella lævipes, =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 541 (nec Sund.).

VERNACULAR NAME:--Tel-badu in Tigré (Heuglin).

Height at withers about 27 inches. General colour deep sandy. Central facial band but little more rufous than the back; no black patch on muzzle. Light facial streak scarcely or not perceptible on sides of muzzle; the area round the eye dull whitish, not sharply defined. Back of ears scarcely lighter than nape. Light lateral band present, not strongly defined. Dark lateral band black, strongly marked, though narrower than in G. thomsoni; a sandy line present between it and the white of the belly. No dark pygal band. Tail sandy at base, the remainder black. Knee-brushes present, dark sandy.